A spirit of joy and
generosity is everywhere

Dear First Family, 

This last week has been filled with many expressions of the significance and impact that our church has in our local community. 

If you were in worship last weekend, you witnessed our gathering spaces being filled with the hundreds of gifts you brought to bless others this Christmas through our Angel Tree. As soon as worship ended on Sunday and in the days that followed, our sanctuary was filled with volunteers sorting those gifts to prepare them for distribution. A spirit of joy and generosity was everywhere. It’s the spirit that defines this season for us, but also the spirit that defines who you are as a faith family. 

In this same spirit, we continue preparing for the nine opportunities on December 23rd and 24th (listed below) for our community to participate in a Christmas Eve candlelight service. In each of those nine services, the generosity in our local community will be multiplied by the special offering we receive each year for ZOE Ministry – our partner in empowering orphans in Rwanda and India to overcome extreme poverty and achieve self-sufficiency. 

This Sunday we will also be offering a special Remembrance service at 4pm in our sanctuary.

In this time of worship, you are welcome to bring a picture of your loved one to display and all will be invited to light a candle of a loved one lost in this year or years past whose life you want to honor and remember this Christmas. For more information about this service, feel free to email our care team at care@fmcm.org.

Finally, this weekend we will continue our Advent journey with our focus on the Jesse Tree. Just like each of us, Jesus comes to us from a people, a place and a story. This weekend I look forward to taking you to the place where Jesus was born and the small hillside village where he was raised by Mary & Joseph. 

As we prepare to gather again, would you join me in centering our hearts and minds on this reminder? 

Advent is about more than the remembrance of a moment that happened. 

Advent is about the longing for something to happen again.

“Come Lord Jesus, come” is the prayer of this season. 

At the edge of our seats, with a holy anticipation, we are waiting for the Lord to reveal himself to us in profound ways, to meet us in the remembrance of what happened and our longing for it to happen again. 

Pastor David

2022 Christmas Eve Services 

December 23

• Family Worship at 2pm
• Contemporary Worship at 6pm
• Traditions Worship 8pm
   

December 24

• Family Worship at 10am
• Family Worship at 2pm
• Contemporary Worship at 4pm
• Contemporary Worship at 6pm
• Traditions Worship 8pm